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Allright, I went through the video and tried to pick out the important parts. Someone correct me if you were there and I missed something.
Jackson/FMIC employees in attendance. Hopefully all the names are spelled correctly.
Tim Wilson has been with Jackson 27 Years - Production Manager
Mike Kotzen has been with Jackson for 6 years- Custom Shop Manager
Mike Shannon has been with Jackson/FMIC 26 years. He is the Senior Master Builder
John Walker - Jackson Marketing Guy - I am not sure I got his full title.
Edel Diaz - Jackson Sales Rep
Mark Weber - FMIC Technician
Alan Pitter - FMIC, Edel's boss
The new catalog was released at the show.
John Walker started out with some questions. John handed out Mike Learn Limited Edition Jackson T-Shirts and Signed Jenna
Posters.
Some questions were asked.
Who built the original white Randy Rhoads Guitar? Tim Wilson
Who built the black, second Rhoads guitar? Mike Shannon
John talked about his first guitar, a Charvel and how he liked it so much. John worked at BC Rich before Jackson.
Jackson/Charvel - Longest Running Custom shop in the industry at high production levels.
They were the originator of the Super Strat. Charvel was one of the first or the first to hot rod guitars. One humbucker guitars with no limitations on paint or graphics.
Where do they fit into FMIC: Fender could never get success with their HM or Heartfielder lines. Jackson/Charvel fills that void
for FMIC.
Tim Wilson talked about how Jackson was going to stop producing the Randy Rhoads Flying V out of respect for his death. Randy's
mother went to Grover and said that she wanted to keep his memory alive and asked that they continue making the flying V.
It's believed that Jackson/Charvel was the first distributer in the U.S. for Seymour Duncan.
Charvel started making brass jack plates as brass was stronger than what was being used and they were constantly breaking.
Another question:
Who was the first employee that Grover Jackson hired?
Charvel first started doing imports in 1985, Jackson was 1989. Up to that point every guitar in U.S. had a work order just like Custom Shop orders do now.
John Walker talked about the difference between Charvel and Jackson? He compared Charvel to an American custom hot rod car and Jackson to your high-performance Ferrari, a totally refined guitar.
Tim Wilson added some notes that up to 85 all bolt-ons were Charvel and Jackson's were neck-thru, with a few exceptions.
John Walker stated that Charvel will primarily be a Custom Shop guitar.
John then asked what was the build type of the first Jackson?
Mike Eldred recently received a promotion within Fender and will be more involved in the Jackson/Charvel lines from a high-end
sales perspective.
The compound radius fingerboard is done a person and not a machine.
The NOS parts on the Charvel line are coming from the original vendor.
Jackson does not use dye on their ebony fingerboards to make it black.
There are separate assembly employees for USA Select and Custom Shop. The same employees do paint and setup.
How guitars are built:
Charvel Guitars are built using original templates and jigs.
The perimeter of the body is CNC cut then the pickups, neck pocket and trem cavities are routed out. Jack holes and wire holes are done. Then the body contours. It is then sent to paint. They add a thin veneer on the top and back to hide glue lines.
After the undercoat and top coats are done they let the guitars sit for six to ten days. It takes about a month for a red, white and black EVH to do it right so the lines are good. Fender was astounded that it took this long but they let Jackson continue to do it there way since they know what they are doing.
Bodys are buffed and polished and set to final assembly areas.
As noted in another thread the fret wire is pre-cut and shaped to match the compound radius fretboard. It does not come in a roll. Frets are also notched out in case there is fretboard shrinkage there isn't a tang that sticks out. Japan and India imports have notched frets as well. The EVH guitars are an exception.
A Vintage Eldred Flames body was passed around. It had not been buffed yet but still looked very good. It had some orange peel but very slight. They are very picky about the paints that are used. The red paint on the red, white and black EVH costs
$569.00 a gallon. It took a while to get the color Ed wanted. All the paint is automotive grade paint.
The same goes for sand paper that they use. They buy different grades of paper from different vendors once they find one they look. To get the very flat surfaces of the body's Mike Shannon built sanding blocks out of aluminum to make sure the sanding is done flat.
Another question: How did the Vintage Eldred Flames name come about?
Jackson/Charvel joins and planes all the wood to make their bodies. They do not buy pre-made body blanks. They buy lumber and make everything.
They use celluloid binding when ever possible, not plastic.
Throughout the presentation John kept talking about the attention to detail of Jackson/Charvel guitars. Since the guitars are
handcrafted their is room for error but everyone I talked to takes it very seriously when there is a problem with a guitar. JohN
Walker almost takes it personally when there is a problem found with the guitars. He really hates to see guitars with problems and takes it seriously when he hears of an issue.
There was talk about when Jackson moved to the Fender facility that many of the Fender guys were questioning what Jackson was doing at first. That stopped as they realized the Jackson/Charvel employees really know what they are doing. Fender leaves Jackson alone and different employees make the guitars. All though I did hear Tim Wilson say that Fender will no longer allow them to set things on fire.
Someone asked a question about Ed's new Wolfgang and the Frankenstrat. No comment from John. He didn't say either was or wasn't going to happen.
I'll answer questions to best that I can.
Jackson/FMIC employees in attendance. Hopefully all the names are spelled correctly.
Tim Wilson has been with Jackson 27 Years - Production Manager
Mike Kotzen has been with Jackson for 6 years- Custom Shop Manager
Mike Shannon has been with Jackson/FMIC 26 years. He is the Senior Master Builder
John Walker - Jackson Marketing Guy - I am not sure I got his full title.
Edel Diaz - Jackson Sales Rep
Mark Weber - FMIC Technician
Alan Pitter - FMIC, Edel's boss
The new catalog was released at the show.
John Walker started out with some questions. John handed out Mike Learn Limited Edition Jackson T-Shirts and Signed Jenna
Posters.
Some questions were asked.
Who built the original white Randy Rhoads Guitar? Tim Wilson
Who built the black, second Rhoads guitar? Mike Shannon
John talked about his first guitar, a Charvel and how he liked it so much. John worked at BC Rich before Jackson.
Jackson/Charvel - Longest Running Custom shop in the industry at high production levels.
They were the originator of the Super Strat. Charvel was one of the first or the first to hot rod guitars. One humbucker guitars with no limitations on paint or graphics.
Where do they fit into FMIC: Fender could never get success with their HM or Heartfielder lines. Jackson/Charvel fills that void
for FMIC.
Tim Wilson talked about how Jackson was going to stop producing the Randy Rhoads Flying V out of respect for his death. Randy's
mother went to Grover and said that she wanted to keep his memory alive and asked that they continue making the flying V.
It's believed that Jackson/Charvel was the first distributer in the U.S. for Seymour Duncan.
Charvel started making brass jack plates as brass was stronger than what was being used and they were constantly breaking.
Another question:
Who was the first employee that Grover Jackson hired?
Charvel first started doing imports in 1985, Jackson was 1989. Up to that point every guitar in U.S. had a work order just like Custom Shop orders do now.
John Walker talked about the difference between Charvel and Jackson? He compared Charvel to an American custom hot rod car and Jackson to your high-performance Ferrari, a totally refined guitar.
Tim Wilson added some notes that up to 85 all bolt-ons were Charvel and Jackson's were neck-thru, with a few exceptions.
John Walker stated that Charvel will primarily be a Custom Shop guitar.
John then asked what was the build type of the first Jackson?
Mike Eldred recently received a promotion within Fender and will be more involved in the Jackson/Charvel lines from a high-end
sales perspective.
The compound radius fingerboard is done a person and not a machine.
The NOS parts on the Charvel line are coming from the original vendor.
Jackson does not use dye on their ebony fingerboards to make it black.
There are separate assembly employees for USA Select and Custom Shop. The same employees do paint and setup.
How guitars are built:
Charvel Guitars are built using original templates and jigs.
The perimeter of the body is CNC cut then the pickups, neck pocket and trem cavities are routed out. Jack holes and wire holes are done. Then the body contours. It is then sent to paint. They add a thin veneer on the top and back to hide glue lines.
After the undercoat and top coats are done they let the guitars sit for six to ten days. It takes about a month for a red, white and black EVH to do it right so the lines are good. Fender was astounded that it took this long but they let Jackson continue to do it there way since they know what they are doing.
Bodys are buffed and polished and set to final assembly areas.
As noted in another thread the fret wire is pre-cut and shaped to match the compound radius fretboard. It does not come in a roll. Frets are also notched out in case there is fretboard shrinkage there isn't a tang that sticks out. Japan and India imports have notched frets as well. The EVH guitars are an exception.
A Vintage Eldred Flames body was passed around. It had not been buffed yet but still looked very good. It had some orange peel but very slight. They are very picky about the paints that are used. The red paint on the red, white and black EVH costs
$569.00 a gallon. It took a while to get the color Ed wanted. All the paint is automotive grade paint.
The same goes for sand paper that they use. They buy different grades of paper from different vendors once they find one they look. To get the very flat surfaces of the body's Mike Shannon built sanding blocks out of aluminum to make sure the sanding is done flat.
Another question: How did the Vintage Eldred Flames name come about?
Jackson/Charvel joins and planes all the wood to make their bodies. They do not buy pre-made body blanks. They buy lumber and make everything.
They use celluloid binding when ever possible, not plastic.
Throughout the presentation John kept talking about the attention to detail of Jackson/Charvel guitars. Since the guitars are
handcrafted their is room for error but everyone I talked to takes it very seriously when there is a problem with a guitar. JohN
Walker almost takes it personally when there is a problem found with the guitars. He really hates to see guitars with problems and takes it seriously when he hears of an issue.
There was talk about when Jackson moved to the Fender facility that many of the Fender guys were questioning what Jackson was doing at first. That stopped as they realized the Jackson/Charvel employees really know what they are doing. Fender leaves Jackson alone and different employees make the guitars. All though I did hear Tim Wilson say that Fender will no longer allow them to set things on fire.
Someone asked a question about Ed's new Wolfgang and the Frankenstrat. No comment from John. He didn't say either was or wasn't going to happen.
I'll answer questions to best that I can.
)
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